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Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Smile for the Camera: Travel by Ship

The word prompt for the 18th Edition of Smile For The Camera is "Travel." Planes, trains and automobiles. Horses, mules, carts, and wagons. Bikes or on foot. Show us your family and how they traveled.

This edition of the carnival was originally scheduled for October 10, but was delayed a month, so I've had a while to prepare. Readers may have noticed that for the past several weeks for "Wordless Wednesday" I've been posting photographs of passenger ships. If you've read the 'mouseover text' (by positioning the mouse cursor over the picture) you've read that these were the passenger ships on which several of my ancestors traveled to America

1) My great grandfather, Samuel Deutsch, and his children Jean, Ted, Ed, Martin, Jerry, and Bert came over on the SS Rhein in 1913.

[My great grandmother, Helen (Lichtmann) Deutsch came over in 1912. Unfortunately, several years ago my mother was told while at the Library of Congress that the 1912 records from the Baltimore port were destroyed by fire. And I've learned the records on the other end in Bremen were destroyed during WW2. So I'm not sure what ship she came over on.]

2) My great great grandfather, Selig Dudelsack, came over on the SS Spain in 1890. His mother, Gitel (Slupsky), his wife, Annie (Perlik), and their children Harry, Herman, Benjamin and Pearl came over on the SS New Amsterdam in 1891.

3) My great great grandfather, Samuel Newmark, and great grandfather, Barney Newmark, came over in 1907 on the RMS Tunisian. They returned to England in 1908. Samuel, Barney, and another son, Sol, returned to America in 1908 on the SS Oceanic. In 1909 Samuel's wife Rose (Cantkert), with children Nellie, Bella, Max, Katie, Cissie, and Israel, and Sol's wife, Sarah (Nathan), with children Minnie, Israel and Morris, came over on the RMS Campania. (Sarah was also pregnant with a child, Esther, who was born in St. Louis in April of 1909, and died prior to the 1910 census.)

I am unsure of the ships or exact years of travel for my Cruvant or Blatt paternal ancestors. The rest of my maternal ancestors arrived in America before the age of photography.

Is that it?

No. You may have noticed I glossed over a leg of the trip for my Newmark ancestors. You may have also noticed a ship in the group image at the top that hasn't been mentioned yet.

All the ships above are from my ancestors' arrivals in American ports. However, Samuel and Barney Newmark returned to England in 1908 from their initial exploratory expedition on the SS City of New York (aka SS New York).

There's a bit of notable trivia about the SS New York. Four years after Barney and Samuel's voyage, on April 10, 1912, the SS New York was berthed at Southampton, England, when a larger ship passing through the harbor narrowly avoided hitting her. The New York was actually torn from her moorings, but otherwise escaped injury.

However, four days later, on April 14, 1912, the larger ship, the Titanic was unable to avoid another collision, this time with an iceberg.